Heavy drinkers of beer and spirits face a much higher risk of developing cancer than the population at large, says a group of Montreal epidemiologists and cancer researchers.
People in the highest consumption category increased their risk of developing esophageal cancer sevenfold, colon cancer by 80 percent, and even lung cancer by 50 percent, the researchers said.
They found statistically significant relationships between heavy consumption of beer and spirits and six different cancers. Moderate drinking (i.e. less than daily) and wine consumption did not show the same effects, however.
“We looked at the data in two ways,” said Dr. Andrea Benedetti of McGill University, one of the three researchers involved. “We compared people who drank heavily to our reference group, who abstained or drank only very occasionally. We also looked for trends across our categories: non-drinkers, weekly drinkers, and daily drinkers.
The results were astounding. “We saw increased risk for esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer,” Benedetti said. “The strongest risk was for esophageal and liver cancer.
“For the most part, we showed that light drinkers were less affected or not affected at all,” Benedetti said. “It is people who drink every day or multiple times a day who are at risk. This adds to the growing body of evidence that heavy drinking is extremely unhealthy in so many ways. Cancer very much included.”
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